****************************
Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, on the leachate leak incident at the North East New Territories Landfill after attending the special meeting of the Legislative Council Panel on Environmental Affairs today (September 17):
Reporter: There seems to be a lot of frustration that the Government does not seem to be doing anything to find out what happened exactly, and whether they are going to take legal actions against the people who are responsible. Can you respond to those concerns?
Secretary for the Environment: Firstly, legal action is being considered by the Government on this case. I think it is very clear. But you know that for legal cases, it would take a kind of process and take time to do the consideration. We would enforce the law as appropriate. Secondly is about the issue under the contract. We are taking a very proactive stance on this case. Firstly, we are speeding up the water sampling process so that in case of any future recurrence, we can speed up the result identification. Secondly, we would like to work closely with the contractor so that we can think of any immediate actions to mitigate or avoid any recurrence of this incident. So as shown in our previous presentation, there are two short-term and three mid-term actions to minimise any risk in this case. At the same time, we required the contractor, under the contract, to submit their report within a month after the exceedance result was identified. After that, we would work closely on that case to see how we can have a more solid analysis on this incident. So we are taking very proactive actions on the whole case.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Issued at HKT 19:43
NNNN
